jxh@cup.portal.com (Jim - Hickstein) (04/06/89)
I have an IBM PS/2 Model 80 with an 8514A display adapter and 8514 display; I wish to use Windows/386 under Micrografx Designer, rather than the runtime Windows that ships with Designer. Designer comes with an 8514A driver which has problems (system font is just blobs, frame window is covered with a fine grid of white dots (not the entire screen, interestingly, just the frame window)), but my retail Win/386 kit from MS does not have even that. Online doesn't seem to offer any help: the latest thing I found in the Knowledgebase that refers to this is a note from March saying that an 8514A driver was "under consideration for a future release." So how come Micrografx managed to beg/buy/steal/write one? Did they get it from MS since my Win/386 kit was built? If so, why is it not available from Online? If there is such a driver, does it work any better than the one I already have? Does it require 8 planes (i.e. the optional memory), or will it work with 4? (It had better.) Is Microsoft going to try to screw me out of another hundred bucks for this (forget it!)? Anyone out there using what I'm talking about? Where did you get it? Please email replies: I'll post a summary. -Jim Hickstein jxh@cup.portal.com ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh
jxh@cup.portal.com (Jim - Hickstein) (04/08/89)
An update: Typically for Microsoft, the MS 8514A driver for Windows and Win/386 REQUIRES the OPTIONAL memory expansion (the one that makes it 8 bits deep). I wish I could say this were unbelievable. Microsoft: Don't you guys ever buy or consider or test with anything but the maximum configuration you can get your hands on? Why does OS/2 REQUIRE FOUR MEGABYTES OF RAM to avoid swapping when one types something? (God help me when I try to get LanMan Server and SQL Server running. Together.) Didn't they tell you that the 8-bit-deep 8514A has an OPTIONAL, EXTRA-COST memory board attached to it? Do you own any 8088 machines? (Granted, I bought an 8086 way back when...) Do you have a BUDGET? Do you have trouble thinking up more ways to SPEND MY MONEY? Come on, you guys, wake up! -A personal attack from: Jim Hickstein VSAT Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA jxh@cup.portal.com ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh Disclaimer: Yes, I do represent my employer, actually. You think I'd do this on my own time?
paulc@microsoft.UUCP (Paul Canniff 2/1011) (04/13/89)
Sheesh! I'm just grubbing through the net, find some 8514 stuff, and WHAM more MS bashing. But hey, he's gonna run LanMan, must be OK deep down. In article <16842@cup.portal.com> jxh@cup.portal.com (Jim - Hickstein) writes: >Microsoft: Don't you guys ever buy or consider or test with anything but the >maximum configuration you can get your hands on? Why does OS/2 REQUIRE FOUR >MEGABYTES OF RAM to avoid swapping when one types something? (God help me >when I try to get LanMan Server and SQL Server running. Together.) Didn't >they tell you that the 8-bit-deep 8514A has an OPTIONAL, EXTRA-COST memory >board attached to it? Do you own any 8088 machines? (Granted, I bought an >8086 way back when...) Do you have a BUDGET? Do you have trouble thinking >up more ways to SPEND MY MONEY? > >Come on, you guys, wake up! Hey, that hurts! Would a company that didn't care about budgets and old machines, sell something like the Mach-20? You can even run OS/2 on it. Now aren't you sorry you threw away that 8086? And yes, LanMan server runs fine in 4MB of RAM. SQL, I don't use, and so cannot give a first-hand review of the performance in such a configuration. As always, nothing I say is attributable to Microsoft, or in fact to me, if pressed.
jxh@cup.portal.com (Jim - Hickstein) (04/15/89)
> Sheesh! I'm just grubbing through the net, find some 8514 stuff, and > WHAM more MS bashing. But hey, he's gonna run LanMan, must be OK > deep down. :-) Yeah, I'm a pearl. It's just that MS-DOS anarchy is SO distasteful after even a day under a REAL OPERATING SYSTEM (OS/2). It almost reminds me of the Cybers, only not quite. It could stand to be about 1000 times faster, but I understand. >>Do you have a BUDGET? Do you have trouble thinking >>up more ways to SPEND MY MONEY? > Hey, that hurts! Would a company that didn't care about budgets > and old machines, sell something like the Mach-20? You can even > run OS/2 on it. Now aren't you sorry you threw away that 8086? Who said anything about throwing it away? How does this work, now, with OS/2 on an 8086? This I've got to hear. Actually, since I wrote that article, I bought an 80386SX with 4MB and a 2-million pixel monochrome display, so I'm not too excited about the 8514A on my desk at work any more. On top of which I managed to beat a purchase order for the extra RAM out of my boss, so the issue has vanished, but the behavior (corporate, not necessarily your personal) that lead to it remains. > And yes, LanMan server runs fine in 4MB of RAM. SQL, I don't > use, and so cannot give a first-hand review of the performance in > such a configuration. The reason I'm going to use LanMan Server is that it is REQUIRED by SQL Server (even when you simply want to serve clients on the same machine, I think). The "Loopback" protocol stack is hardly the right solution for this. Could NAMPIPE.SYS be brought back to emulate some of the LanMan stuff for single-CPU testing? LanMan is nifty, but the above- mentioned behavior caused me not to be able to run a server because I didn't have any 3C505 boards. I don't WANT 3C505s. I own stacks of 3C501s. If there is a performance penalty, at least let me make that judgement for myself. That way, I can draw people into using the thing to get them over to the idea that it's worth having BEFORE I try to get them to spring for a better Ethernet board for the server. I'm afraid that's the way things work around my place, and Microsoft doesn't make things easy for me, who is trying desperately to get your products accepted and in use in my company. I wound up getting a 3C503 driver from 3+Open (3Com), but we still haven't gotten LM Server off the ground (We're using 3+Plus on 3Servers, so 3Com's "3+Plus for OS/2 NetStation" is the only aspect of any of this stuff we're using, yet). But I digress. By the way, if IBM, say, or someone else, comes up with a 2-million pixel, 19-inch color display for these things (PC or PS/2) that doesn't cost $5K (i.e. maybe only 4 bits deep, 6 bits per gun), will MS come right along with a base driver for it? It seems that the hardware vendors are extremely sluggish in supporting OS/2 (even those that manage to keep up with Windows), and I don't want to have to write them all myself. Bearing in mind your .signature's disclaimer of your connection with Microsoft, I appreciate getting some reaction. Sorry about letting off steam in that direction, but I'm afraid I have rather a large fire under me most of the time. -Jim Hickstein VSAT Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA ...an OS/2 SDK su... ah, customer. jxh@cup.portal.com ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh